Where has all the colour gone?
We did some drawings recently to assist in the restoration of a turn of the century villa in Mt.Victoria.
As it neared completion, I offered to do a paint colour scheme free of charge. To me, colour is a really important dimension of design. I never heard back from the owners.
I wasn’t going to propose garish primaries, but but a sophisticated, refined colour palette to enhance the basic shapes, elements and decorative elements, but I didn’t get the chance.
A subsequent drive-by revealed that purveyors of pallid from the institution of insipidity, had got the clients ear. (Certainly not his eye, I thought.) Read More
Born Again Cathedral
Euthanasia is not an Anglican belief, yet the Anglican hierarchy wants the Christchurch Cathedral killed off. This poor damaged building apparently doesn’t qualify as sanctity of life.
Theologian Richard Hooker, a founding father of Anglicanism, speaks of scripture, reason and tradition, as the three divines of the faith.
Where is the reason in either of the polarised options: brutal demolition, or unimaginative stone by stone restoration.
Now a couple of structural engineers blessed with imagination, are demonstrating a third way.
They propose to stabilise the walls and the roof, keep the building alive, and make it safe for the future by weaving the retained old stonework with something new.
There are precedents for this including Peter Zumthor’s religious art museum in Cologne.
Awkward Debates
For those of you who think architecture is for the wealthy, perched on their stunning sites overlooking some stunning estuary waiting for the glossy magazine photographer to arrive, let me tell you about my friend Mark Roberts.
Over several years Mark has worked the gritty side of life.
He has worked in three challenging areas: prisons (correction facilities) in New Zealand, aboriginal communities (think the film Samson & Delilah) in the Northern Territories of Australia, and in earthquake ravaged Christchurch.
These experiences led him to organise the ‘Awkward Debates’ which started last week at the School of Architecture with the second in the series tomorrow night.
So a big ‘shout out’, as the kids say, for these important events and if you’re interested in attending contact mark.roberts@vuw.ac.nz.
How can good design improve the lives of the incarcerated, the indigenous and the anticipation of Christchurch’s future?
RIP Peter Beaven
Let me add to the many tributes paid to a dear colleague and mentor Peter Beaven who passed away this week. The architectural tributes are understandably glowing.
My thinking is that while his lungs eventually gave in, I know his heart would have been as big and passionate as ever.
That heart gave me such inspiration in dealing with the academic constraints at the Auckland School of Architecture in the late sixties. His influence on my own modest romantic notions and emerging passion for architecture was enormous.
He not only loved buildings, perhaps almost as much as women, but he actually built them. Lots of them. The ones that survived the seismic attack, must be preserved, now that he is gone. Read More
The Ugly Truth
Two modern buildings in Melbourne, both of which I have visited and admired, have been named by recent surveys as among the world’s ugliest.
Great emotion can be generated by the appearance of buildings. Reference Prince Charles for instance. He turned up as a royal person at the Royal institute of Architects conference in London a few years ago. He opined that ‘when Hitler bombed London, he had the decency to leave just piles of rubble. You architects not only destroy buildings but replace them with monstrosities’. The extension to the National Gallery, at the edge of Trafalgar Square he described as ‘a carbuncle on an old friend.’
The subsequent debate was welcome though, as the real worry of us architects is that people just don’t notice buildings. The Prince of Wails, can’t have been too serious though, as his identified architectural vandals such as Normal Foster and Richard Rogers received knighthoods. (Foster is now Lord Norman and has a helicopter).
‘Beauty’ and ‘ugliness’ are of course personal perceptions. Thinking about this over a fine pinot at the Tasting Room, I have concluded that symmetry has a lot to do with it. Physical beauty is about symmetry. The face, for instance. That the eyes are the same size and are located equidistantly from either side of the nose is important. The mouth should not be lopsided and a limp should not be evident in the walk. There is a vertical axis about which the elements are ‘balanced’ Read More
